If I remember correctly it was around 1995/96, when Bug and Paul were going to be married, Mary and Bug were sitting in the Williams living room looking at the family photo album. Bug saw a page of pics and said that's a very pretty girl and Mary said "That's Patty, your sister in law dear ". The camera then zoomed in and it was pics of Lilibet Stern. Bug then started questioning Paul about her and he told the story of her marriage to Jack and was upset remembering what a SOB he was. Later there was a scene of the phone ringing at Mary's after everyone left to go out and then they show a woman with long blonde hair from behind in a phone booth. Then the story was dropped.

I got the impression that the show must have been interested in getting Lilibet Stern back, but it didn't pan out. Then later we had that stupid story of Carl with amnesia living with Ruth in Norfolk.

It was as if Bill Bell wanted to revive the Williams clan, but lost interest.

Y&R

Nick's plane crash in 2007. Didn't they find out it had been tampered with and the story went nowhere.

Sharon/Sam/the lamb

Noah/Adrianna

The whole Sarge story.

Forget the lamb...that little girl is what threw me. I just knew Sharon would adopt her.

DAYS: Wendy Reardon (by '96 was played by Yvonna Kopacz) was hesitant about featuring her toddler Benjamin as a child model for fear that her baby daddy would come back into the picture. Jonah had no clue about her fears. Maggie was the token talk-to for Wendy. Then it was dropped and the couple disappeared.

I remember the Audrey North story. I expected something to happen, but then she vanished. Why was 1996 so bad? Can you remind us? And which was the other bad year?

I would say 1996-1997 were Bell's worst years (of course, I should note that his "worst" was light years better than most of anything we've seen in the past 10 years or so). Those years had some good stuff (like Victor's shooting, which wisely focused on Jill as a suspect, Diane's return, Diane/Jack) but they were also the years that tried to have a Christine/Victor romance, Nikki falling for her gynecologist, Grace endlessly wanting Nick's dick, boring Dennisons, Kurt Costner, Shari Shattuck and the ridiculous attempts to make her happen, decreased story for Jill/Kay, Veronica (whom I enjoyed but, let's be honest, her story was just pure soapy nonsense), Nina/Cole nonsense, and so on.

Ultimately, it wasn't that it was bad soap (it was "bad" in comparison to how Y&R was usually) but those couple of years seemed generally boring, aimless (much like 2002 did), confused... which could have easily been the result of Bell's health. It's the reason why he made Alden co-headwriter and then gave the show over to her. Back then, the renewed energy, purpose and direction in early 1998 was very clear. We were lucky the show turned itself around. The second time it went through this, in 2002-2003, well... we all know what happened after that.

Then later we had that stupid story of Carl with amnesia living with Ruth in Norfolk.

It was as if Bill Bell wanted to revive the Williams clan, but lost interest.

Just wondering--why do you think it was stupid? And would you really call a 13-14 month long story losing interest or are you referring to the earlier stuff?

Edited December 29, 201311 yr by YRBB

Forget the lamb...that little girl is what threw me. I just knew Sharon would adopt her.

Sharon was supposed to adopt her. They even recast the role with Ryan Newman but she never showed up onscreen because they decided to drop the story.

Another Days one: Was the gifts Stefano bequeathed at his will reading ever explained? I remember being really intrigued by this story, but it didn't seem to go anywhere. Unless I tuned out and missed the explanations.

Also, anyone remember Caprice? She was supposed to be linked to Celeste in some way, knowing her from her Frankie days, but this was never developed at all, and Caprice disappeared.

Edited December 29, 201311 yr by Ben

Oh yeah I remember Caprice. Supposedly Belle's childhood nanny (even though her nanny was always referred to as a Chelsea when Belle and Brady were actual kids) and the insinuation that she and Celeste were linked.

AMC had a couple that I remember:

Remember that Sydney girl? I think she was supposed to be eventually related to someone(or was?). She was a rival for Colby for like 2 seconds, was in the opening for longer than she should have been, then disappeared. And then there was that whole "band" thing that was supposed to be something.

AMC had a couple that I remember:

Remember that Sydney girl? I think she was supposed to be eventually related to someone(or was?). She was a rival for Colby for like 2 seconds, was in the opening for longer than she should have been, then disappeared. And then there was that whole "band" thing that was supposed to be something.

Sydney was Winnifred' s Niece They were gonna do a Paris/Nicole friendship with Colby & Sydney

I preferred the character of Sydney and the actress over Colby at the time. Its too bad they didnt keep her around bc I rooted for her over that annoying brat

I liked Sydney too and wished they did more with the character too.

There is also that Carmen woman who had a past with Randi and was working for the Chandlers

Of course there was Beth Ehlers' character Taylor (originally McBride) Thompson who just disappeared, still think she would've been a good Liza

Just wondering--why do you think it was stupid? And would you really call a 13-14 month long story losing interest or are you referring to the earlier stuff?

I am mainly referring to the dropped Patty storyline as Bell losing interest. I still say that they must have been in talks with Lilibet Stern, since it was her photo they were using and it didn't pan out.

The Ruth/Carl story became stupid to me. What was the purpose of bringing back his character if he was just going to stay where he was and not reunite with Mary ? They should have just let viewers think he and Mary were still together, but not onscreen or say he died and left it at that.

From time to time they show Todd Williams, but Steve hasn't been referred to in decades. Looks like they would revive that character. When he was briefly on the show he romanced Peggy Brooks and she left him at the altar because she slept with Jack Abbott. Jack really screwed over the Williams family many times over.

Edited December 30, 201311 yr by SoapDope

There was a LOT dropped during AMC's final years:

It was strange how AMC built up this whole family for Jack, and then a lot of them just quietly disappeared without much explanation. Reggie supposedly went off to play basketball, which was odd since he was very pretty short compared to Jack, Lily went off to college too, I guess, at some point. Sean disappeared - did he leave with Barbara?

Erica's former cell mate/Jack's girlfriend Carmen was written off when Walt Willey was fired because he complained a lot about Jack being paired with Carmen instead of with Erica. The connection to Randi had potential, but I really didn't care for Carmen and wasn't sad to see her go or anything.

TPTB had Liza have an affair with Tad's long-lost son/her daughter's boyfriend, and then just DROPPED IT instead of playing on the history these characters had.

Bianca is with Maggie, no she's with Zoey/Zarf, no she's with Reese, no they're divorcing and they're having a custody fight that, like their relationship, takes place mainly off screen. I wish they'd either pushed Eden Reigel to commit to a contract role or just recast it years earlier because it was so frustrating to have just bits and pieces of story with her.

How about AMC giving Adam a long lost son in the form of Miguel and NEVER bringing the boy to town! I really thought they just should have made him Asher and reveal that Adam wasn't the father but rather Caleb was. It seemed as if they could have done that as as things seemed to fit but they went left with this story and never tied Asher to Miguel even though his mother was the same Sonia Reyes that Adam and Caleb fought over. Made no sense to me, even if DC was gone.